Trudeau son Justin mulls possible separate Quebec

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The son of one of the greatest defenders of Canadian unity, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, has stirred up a hornets' nest by speculating about backing Quebec separatism if the country moves too far right

Trudeau's 40-year-old son, Justin, now a Liberal member of Parliament, said in an interview with the French-language service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (link.reuters.com/gud66s)

on Sunday that he was enormously saddened by the direction of the country under Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

He said that at some point he might even back independence for his home province, French-speaking Quebec. Referendums in Quebec on independence in 1980 and 1995 both failed, the last one by a mere 1.2 percentage points.

"I always say, if at a certain point I thought that Canada was really the Canada of Stephen Harper - that we were going against abortion, and we were going against gay marriage and we were going backwards in 10,000 different ways - maybe I would think about wanting to make Quebec a country," he said.

That statement caught the CBC interviewer off guard, and he asked him to verify what he had just said.

"Yes, yes, absolutely. If I no longer recognized Canada, I know my values very well," he said, and then added: "But I believe deeply in Canada."

His father was Liberal prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and again from 1980 to 1984, and he fiercely defended a united Canada that included his native Quebec.

It took a little time for Justin Trudeau's remarks to be noticed broadly but they exploded on the Internet on Tuesday and his name was trending on Twitter, drawing him into the fray with a Tweet of his own.
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